In a perfect world, I would have a set time for school. But I am not perfect and neither is my homeschooling world. I try to get the kids up between 7-9am. I have started to implement that the kitchen closes at 9:00am to motivate them from straggling. I do not allow tv before chores, food and getting dressed. On Mondays and Tuesdays thy have classes outside of our house during the day. These two days are pretty much our catch up days. The girls do a subject or two but I don't expect an entire workload. Mondays are our busiest because they have music class, art class, scouts, girl scouts and K's orchestra. Tuesdays are close with violin lessons for all three of the girls and swimming class. But we can usually get more school in on that day than Mondays. We always make up our work on the weekends. Sundays are actually a school day after church. It's been this way since we started 5 years ago so the kids know no difference.
No matter the day, the girls always get to pick the subject they wish to start on. Since K does most of her work online, she doesn't need much instruction to get started. G and M usually do. M won't do anything on her own, a big issue, without being told. She will always whine, "I don't know what to do!" and then run off to watch tv or try to get on the computer for a computer game. All three like being plugged into he computer. I was once asked about the downfall of cyberschooling, I would have to say that the reliance the girls have on computer games to learn. We don't have to be that way. It really started when I moved K off Calvert and onto the cyberschool's own curriculum. While I like the idea, I hate the curriculum and so does K.
Ideally, Wednesdays-Friday we do more school, Saturday-Tuesday we do half day school. We don't take a day off. It's too hard to get the kids in the mindframe of working again. I fear this may end up being a problem later. But my girls do not have the best work ethic anyway. I think it's the ADD coming out in their parents.
We do not have a rigid time frame. I do expect everyone to be fed, dressed and working on school by 9:00am. I expect them to be done with school by 5:00pm. But if we have nothing to do and an activity they'd like to catch up on, they may do so until bedtime rituals begin at 8:00pm. They all need to be in bed by 9:00am. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the worse because of outside activities.
I try to be flexible as well. If another homeschool friend calls me up and wants to do a spontaneous activity I try to accommodate those moments. However, it's harder to do this right now with being so heavily involved in scouts. Next year, I will be changing that.
The cyberschool has set a pacing schedule. I am awful with keeping with that. I need to get better, I must admit. I like their pacing schedule; it's a deadline. However, I dislike it in many ways, too. It makes it hard with a struggling child. She doesn't fit in the proper time frame. I do like the fact the school is accommodating to this fact. But by third grade there is a ton of pressure because of state standardized testing. Up until this year, I was always irritated by this fact. However, I just learned that the state standardized testing standards are higher for a charter and cyber school than for a regular brick and mortar school. The expectations are higher. Personally, I think the state needs to raise the bar on brick and mortars to the cyber standards. We'd probably see more failing schools, but we'd be able to fix the American public school system. By lowering our standards to fit the schools, we're setting ourselves up for children graduating but not being able to function, learn and read at the appropriate standards.
My children often explore their own things. When they have finished a day's worth of assignments, it's guaranteed they are reading or using blocks, erector sets or something educational to continue learning. If they have a particular interest, we try to purchase books and activities around those interests and have them available at our house for active play.
Next year, I plan to incorporate their Girl Scout activities into our daily homeschool. And, even field trips we take.
No comments:
Post a Comment